ICANN were hacked in late November

Global Internet authority ICANN that allocates IP addresses and domain names for the Internet has reportedly been hacked. According to The Verge, the US-administered non-profit has said that its internal systems were breached following a spear phishing attack in late November.

The unsuspecting employees gave up their credentials after they received e-mails from the organisation’s own domain after it was hacked.

ICANN says the hackers accessed internal e-mails, a members-only Wiki page containing public information, the WHOIS portal (used to look up who registered a particular domain), and the organisation’s Centralised Zone Data System (CZDS).

The attackers were able to breach a wide range of user information including real names, addresses, e-mails, telephones and usernames. The hackers also accessed the passwords of users. However, ICANN said that the passwords were encrypted, the report added.